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This guest blog post is courtesy of Crianlarich Primary School. Back in September, I had the privilege of working with the school for a morning to kickstart using their school grounds and local environment for raising attainment in maths.

How would use this maths tarp? Most children end up with throwing games.

Very often it’s hard to imagine how a trainer’s work transfers into a classroom context. For those of you who have attended my training days, will immediately recognise the resources and what I’m doing. For those of you who haven’t, then enjoy browsing all the maths posts as this will give you a flavour of how I use natural, home-made and found manipulative materials in an outdoor context. 

One – metre sticks. An essential resource for so many maths challenges.

Friday 22ndย September saw a very different day at school! We ENJOYED THREE HOURS of Maths outside. It was FUN!

Practising our tables and counting using the one-metre maths sticks

Whatโ€™s It All About?

Today we launched Maths Trailblazers, Mrs Lochheadโ€™s unique project especially for Crianlarich PS. Earlier this year, Mrs Lochhead took part in the Raising Attainment Champions project. She submitted the Trailblazers idea and succesfully bid for funding. She was awarded ยฃ1500 for our school.The target is to raise attainment in Mental Maths and Maths overall for all children.

Silicone numbers – saves laminating and work brilliantly in different weathers.

Crianlarich on the map!

Teachers came from far and wide to learn too, today.

Crianlarich Primary School pupils were joined by Juliet Robertson of Creative STAR Learning, parents, all Crianlarich staff, educators from Killin and Crianlarich Nurseries, the Head Teacher of Dalmally School, Claire Peebles from Active Stirling and teachers from Killin and Strathyre Primary Schools.

Are those the Cosy rainbow sticks I spy?

Juliet worked her maths magic in the rain, helping children, staff and parents explore and work together with a variety of new resources. The idea was to get maths chats going and for children to learn and make up games and activities which encouraged maths problem solving. Children were encouraged to talk about their reasoning. They practised and learnt more number and maths topic knowledge.

Sammy the one-metre rope snake loves visiting different schools.

So, what will Trailblazers look like?…ย It’s as easy as 1, 2, 3!

  1. Numeracy Grab Bags

These are being made up now by Mrs Ramsay and her team. They will be full of fun things to try and available for children at playtimes and sometimes during maths lessons.

  1. Playground Elements

Weโ€™ll have things like aโ€˜vortexโ€™ , blank number ladders and other puzzles painted for children to play and practise on.

  1. Maths Trail

At a later date, we are planning a maths trail through the playground, using the sand area and platform with problems to solve which will involve community groups.

Number pebbles are a source of fascination for all ages.

And what’s next?

We might need parent help to collect and prepare resources.

Weโ€™re going to work with nursery through transition to play the games we make up. We hope we can help them with counting and number.

Weโ€™ll be asking community groups to write problems for us to solve.

Crime Scene Investigates… death in the playground…

Well done to all the children in Crianlarich for helping us to learn more about outdoor maths.  We all had a fabulous morning, despite a bit of rain.

Many thanks to PT Mrs Lochead who organised all of this, wrote the text and took the photos!

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